Nantucket Sanborn Maps
Per the Nantucket Historical Association, The Sanborn Map® Collection consists of a uniform series of large-scale detailed maps depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of cities. The maps were designed by surveyor D.A. Sanborn in 1866 to assist fire insurance agents in determining the degree of hazard associated with a particular property.
Sanborn Maps® illustrate in outline form the site, size, shape, construction and building material of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories. Details of buildings include fire walls, the location and number of windows and doors, style and composition of roofs, wall thickness, cracks in exterior walls, and makes of elevators. The maps also indicate building use, sidewalk and street widths, layout and names, property boundaries, distance between buildings, house and block numbers, location of water mains, hydrants, piping, wells, cisterns, and fuel storage tanks.
1887 Map
